‘Murder in the Wings’ by Amy Myers

Published by Severn House,
7 July 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-4483-1762-2 (HB)

Cara Shelley runs the Happy Huffkin Café, which is situated in the grounds of Tanton Towers, a large stately home owned by Max and Alison Farran Pryde. Like so many historic houses, Tanton Towers is open to the public in order to help with the vast expense of maintaining it and Cara’s café caters for the visitors, as well as helping provide for special events. Cara has become very close to Max and Alison and is always eager to help them. In the recent past there have been violent deaths connected to Tanton Towers, which Cara played an important part in solving. This has earned her the reputation of being a local ‘Sherlock’. It has also resulted in the development of her relationship with Detective Superintendent Andrew Mitchem who has recently moved into Cara’s cottage with her, and she is now happier than she has been for years.

One of the money-making endeavours at Tanton Towers is their new open air theatre and the first performance is Shakespeare’s As You Like It, performed by a rather eccentric local theatre company, the Merriday Players. The main performers in the company are all descended from Edward Merriday, a famous Edwardian actor-manager, his first wife, Rose, and his second wife, Miriam. Even a hundred years after the deaths of Edward Merriday and his two wives, the strange mix of heritage and talents causes tension within the company, with conflicting rumours claiming that either Rose had attempted to poison Miriam, or that Miriam had tried to poison Rose. Hannah, the company’s director, is a descendant of the second wife, Miriam, and casts Rose as the villain of the story. She vigorously declares her belief in Miriam’s talent and the love she claims Edward and Miriam shared. She is supported by her cousin, Eileen, a quiet, meek woman, who does not perform but serves as the play’s prompter. The younger actors include handsome, charismatic Jack, who is an excellent and ambitious actor; Tricia, who is beautiful, talented and ambitious, and is in a relationship with Jack; Dan is quiet and reliable, a good actor who would prefer to be a director; Mia is self-contained and composed and wishes to be a writer. The most flamboyant and eccentric of the actors is Matthew, who is known as the Golden Guy because, whatever role he is playing, he insists upon wearing a golden robe. 

Max is very negative about the arrival of the Merriday Players and Cara does her best to support Alison. Cast members keep turning up at the Happy Huffkin for coffee, food and meetings, and Cara is one of the two caterers who are providing refreshments for the two performances. To Cara’s horror, at the end of the first successful performance of As You Like It, Hannah is poisoned on stage while toasting Edward and her ancestor Miriam. 

Cara is horrified because she likes all of the suspects. Andrew is away from home investigating another case and when Cara meets the investigating detective, Detective Inspector Charmers, she dislikes and distrusts him and thinks that, far from being charming, he resembles a weasel. When the detective focuses his attention on people that Cara cares about, she is determined to discover the truth. Andrew returns and strongly objects to Cara’s involvement in the case, which he feels could involve a conflict of interest between his personal and professional lives. Cara continues to investigate, even though her determination to discover the murderer threatens to endanger both her relationship with the man she loves and her own life. 

Murder in the Wings is the third book in the British Stately Home mysteries, with a determined but vulnerable protagonist in Cara Shelley, and features a lively cast of eccentric characters. This is a gently paced mystery perfect for fans of cosy crime.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron 

Amy Myers was born in Kent, where she still lives. For many years she worked as a director in a London publishing firm, before realising her dream to become a writer. Her first series featured detective, August Didier, a half French, half English master chef in late Victorian and Edwardian times. She also wrote a series with her American husband James Myers featuring Jack Colby, car detective, there are 8 books in the series. She also writes a series set post WW1, featuring chef-sleuth Nell Drury. There are three books in this series.  She has also written nine books featuring Marsh and Daughter, and in between a series about a Victorian chimney sweep Tom Wasp. Her most recent series is The British Stately Home Mystery series. There are two books in this series. Amy also writes historical novels and suspense under the name Harriet Hudson. 

http://www.amymyers.net/  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies. Her most recent books is The Apples of Sodom. 

 www.carolwestron.com